Cucina Divina: Lunch at L'Officina della Bistecca

After a great weekend in Florence, soaking up the art at L'Accademia and L'Uffizi, as well as having some amazing meals, it was time to head home to Spello, but we decided to make a detour to Chianti and have lunch at Dario Cecchini's in Panzano. Chianti is a beautiful region of Italy, rolling hills, planted with acres and acres of grapes and olive trees. Panzano is out in the countryside, and although it's a sweet little town, the attraction here is the famous butcher, his macelleria and his restaurants.

Last year, my friend Kellie and I did the Macellaio per un giorno, following the butchers around, all day, and then finally eating lunch at about 3 p.m. It was a great experience and I'm indebted to Dario and his wife Kim, Ricardo (photo below) and Nicola Trois for the experience, as well their amazing staff who helped us along the way last year..

Ricardo was in charge while Dario was gone on Monday

Today, we were going to have the 7 course beef lunch, which is an incredible amount of food, and it is amazing. I'm going to let the photos do the talking for me, but you will not find better food in Tuscany. Buon appetito!